According to the National Cancer Institute, one out of eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. In addition, even though recent trends indicate a decline in the incidence of breast, it still remains that each year approximately 40,000 women will die from the disease.
The causes of breast cancer are varied, and as a result there is no single causative factor, making the development of successful treatments difficult. Thus, even though attempts have been made to understand the underlying biological processes involved in the development of the disease, and to potentially control incidence through identification of risk factors, combined with methods of prevention, early detection continues to be widely regarded as the most effective means to improve overall mortality and morbidity.
At present, mammography is generally accepted as the standard and most widely used test for the earliest detection of breast cancer. Despite the widespread use of mammography as a diagnostic tool, it nonetheless suffers from limitations that impact on its usefulness as a diagnostic tool for accurately detecting the presence of potential cancerous lesions. For example, in some groups of women, the sensitivity of mammography can be as low as 30-40%. In addition to false positive reports (report of a tumor where none exist), up to 20% of breast cancers are missed entirely by mammographic screening.